After my death our beloved Church abroad will break three ways ... first the Greeks will leave us as they were never a part of us ... then those who live for this world and its glory will go to Moscow ... what will remain will be those souls faithful to Christ and His Church.~St. Philaret of NY

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The Lenten Prayer

repost
Sermon by Father Macarius († 3Aug2014)

Of all the lenten hymns and prayers, one short prayer could be termed the Lenten Prayer. It is traditional, and probably one of the great teachers of spiritual life is Saint Ephraim the Syrian. Here is the text:

“O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, faint heartedness, and lust for power and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; for Thou art blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.”

This prayer is read twice at the end of each Lenten service Monday through Friday, not on Saturdays and Sundays because on these days on Sundays we celebrate the Resurrection and Saturdays the Sabbath and the fast is restricted. At first reading of this, a prostration follows each petition and at the end we bow also 12 times and say, “O God, cleanse me a sinner.” And the entire prayer is repeated with one final prostration at the end.

And why does this short prayer occupy such an important position in the entire Lenten worship? Because it enumerates, in a unique way, all the negative and positive elements of repentance and constitutes, so to say, a checklist for the individual Lenten effort. This effort is aimed first at our liberation from such fundamental spiritual diseases which shape our life and make it virtually impossible for us to even to start turning ourselves to God.

Getting back to the word prostration, in the Greek, metania, means to change one’s mind. So by passing from an erect position to one bowing you are changing your mind also with your body. The basic disease of speaking of √sloth which is a strange combination of laziness and passivity and our entire being which always pushes us down rather than up which constantly convinces us no change is possible, and therefore desirable. It is a fact that deeply-rooted cynicism which to every spiritual challenge responds, “What for?” and makes our lives difficult at its very source. The result of sloth is √faint-heartedness – this is a state of despondency which all spiritual fathers consider the greatest danger for the soul.

Despondency is the impossibility for man to see anything good or positive. It is a reduction of everything to negativism and pessimism. It is truly a demonic power in us because the devil is fundamentally a liar. He lies to man about God and about the world. He fills life with darkness and negation. Despondency is a suicide of the soul because when man is possessed by it, he is unable to see the light or desire it. Also it matches his √lust for power. Strange as it may seem, it is precisely sloth and despondency that fill our life with lust for power by vitiating the entire attitude to our life and making it meaningless and empty, they force us to seek compensation and a radically wrong attitude towards other persons.

If my life is not oriented to God nor aimed at eternal values, it will inevitably become selfish, self-centered and this means that all things become means of my own self-satisfaction. If God is not the Lord and Master of my life, then I become my own lord and master, the absolute center of my own world and I begin to evaluate everything in terms of my needs, my ideas, my desires and my judgment. The lust for power is thus a fundamental depravity in my relationship to other beings, a search for their subordination to me. It does not necessarily express the actual urge to co-manage others and may result as well in indifference, contempt, lack of interest and respect. It is indeed sloth and despondency directed this time at others that it completes spiritual suicide with spiritual murder.

Finally √idle talk - of all created beings, man alone has been endowed with the gift of speech. All the Fathers see it as the very seal of the divine image in man because God himself has revealed his Word as in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. But being the supreme gift, it is by the same token the supreme danger being the very expression of man. The means of his fulfillment is for this very reason the means of his fall and self-destruction of a trail of sins - the word saves and the word kills, the word inspires and the word poisons, the Word is the means of Truth and is the means of demonic lie. Having ultimate positive power is, therefore, tremendous negative power. It creates negatively when it deviates from its divine origin and purpose. The word becomes idle and forces sloth and despondency, and lust for power, and transforms life into the very power of sin. These four are thus the negative objects of repentance; they are the obstacles to be removed but God alone can remove them.

Hence the first part of the Lenten prayer described from the bottom of human helplessness, then the prayer moves to the positive aims of repentance which also are four.

√Chastity - if one does not reduce this term as often and as erroneously done only to sexual connotation, it is understood as the positive counterpart of sloth. Exact and full translations of the Greek sofrosini and the Russian tselomoodrie ought to be whole-mindedness. Sloth is the first of all dissipation, the brokenness of our vision and energy, the inability to see the whole its opposite then, is precisely wholeness. If we use to mean by chastity the virtue opposed to sexual depravities, it is because the broken character of our existence is nowhere better manifested than in sexual lust, the alienation of the body from the light that controls the spirit.

Christ restores wholeness in us and He does so by restoring to us the true scale of values by leading us back to God. The first and wonderful fruit of this wholeness or chastity is √humility. We already spoke of it - it is above everything else the victory of truth in us, the elimination of all lies in which we usually live. Humility alone is capable of truth, of seeing and accepting things as they are and therefore seeing God’s majesty and goodness in love and everything. That’s why we are told that God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud.

Chastity and humility are naturally followed by √patience. The natural or fallen man is impatient for being blind to himself, he is quick to judge and condemn others. Having but a broken, incomplete and distorted knowledge of everything, he measures all things by his tastes and ideas, being indifferent to everyone except himself, he wants life to be successful right here and now. Patience, however, is a truly divine virtue. God is patient not because he is indulgent, but because he sees the depth of all that exists and the inner reality of things which in our blindness we do not see, is open to Him. The closer we come to God, the more patient we grow and the more we reflect that infinite respect for all beings which is a proper quality of God.

Finally, the crown of all virtues, all of growth and effort is √Love. That love, as we have already said, can be given by God alone - the gift which is the goal of all spiritual preparation and practice. All this is summarized and brought together to the concluding petition of the Lenten prayer in which we ask to see our own errors and not to judge my brother.

But, ultimately, there is but one danger – pride. Pride is the source of evil and all evil is pride. It is not enough for me to see my own errors, for even this apparent virtue can be turned into pride. Spiritual writings are full of warnings against the subtle forms of pseudo piety which, in reality, are the cover of humility and self-accusation and can lead to a truly demonic pride. When we see our own errors and do not judge our brothers, when in other terms chastity, humility, patience and love are but one in us, then and only then the ultimate enemy pride will be destroyed in us.

After each petition, we make a prostration. As I said, prostrations are not limited to the prayer of Saint Ephraim, but can consequently be the distinctive characteristic of the entire length of worship. Here, however, their meaning is disclosed best of all. In the long and difficult effort of spiritual recovery, the Church does not separate the soul from the body. The whole man has fallen away from God, the whole man is to be restored, the whole man is to return. The catastrophe of sin lies precisely in the victory of the flesh, the animal, the irrational, the lust in us, of the spiritual and the divine. But the body is glorious, the body is holy. So holy that God himself became flesh. Salvation and repentance then are not contempt for the body or neglect of it, but restoration of the body to its real function as an expression and light of spirit. As a temple, the price is the human soul. To be a Christian, in a sense, is a fight not against but for the body. For this reason the whole man, soul and body repents. The body participates in the prayer of the soul just as the soul prays through and in the body. Prostration is a sign of repentance and humility, of adoration and obedience are thus a lenten rite of par excellence. And in the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy a hymn reads: “Let us abstain from sin as we abstain from food.” Amen.

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THE SISTER CHURCHES

The True Orthodox Churches of Romania, and Bulgaria, and with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, and with the Synod in Resistance, are called by the Grace of the Lord to coexist in Mysteriological communion.

from §4 of “Schedule of Steps in the Union Process” Feb. 2014

VL AGAFANGEL PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Theotokos and all the Saints: keep our souls unharmed from the destructive influences of globalism, ecumenism, and sergianism, and give all of us the strength to endure the latest onset of persecution of the Church of Christ. Amen

QUOTE

"I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you... I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.”

St. John Chrysostom

QUOTE

"If we have a good priest (or bishop), we give thanks to God. If a bad one, we endure him".

- old Russian saying

QUOTE

"And here is something to which I would like to draw your attention to – something about which very many do not think about. Father Archimandrite Constantine, whom probably many of you know, the reposed editor of the journal “Orthodox Rus’”, a profound Christian mind, considered that the most terrible among all the achievements of the communists was that the communists created their own false-church, a soviet church which they shoved onto the unfortunate people in place of the genuine Church which went underground into the catacombs. Do not think that I am exaggerating or that Father Constantine was exaggerating!

Once, in the year 1918, a Pan-Russian Church Council was held. At this Council, the entire Pan-Russian Church together with its first holy hierarch, Patriarch Tikhon anathematized, excommunicated from the Church not only the theomachists and godless ones themselves, but also all those who would collaborate with them."

~St. Philaret of NY

QUOTE

"To the Russians abroad, it has been granted to shine in the whole world with the light of Orthodoxy, so that other peoples, seeing their good deeds, might glorify our Father Who is in heaven, and thus obtain salvation for themselves. But if it does not perform this purpose and even abases Orthodoxy by its life, the Diaspora will have before itself two paths: either to be converted to the path of repentance, having acquired forgiveness through prayer to God and being reborn spiritually and to being capable of giving rebirth to our suffering homeland; or else being rejected by God and remaining in banishment, persecuted by everyone, until gradually it will degenerate and disappear from the face of the earth."

from Vladika John's report to the All-Diaspora Sobor in 1938

QUOTE

The apostasy of our times, to a degree unique in Christian history, is proceeding not primarily by false teachings or canonical deviations, but rather by a false understanding of Orthodoxy on the part of those who may even be perfectly Orthodox in their dogmatic teaching and canonical situation. A correct "Orthodoxy" deprived of the Spirit of true Christianity—this is the meaning of Sergianism, and it cannot be fought by calling it a "heresy," which it is not, nor by detailing its canonical irregularities, which are only incidental to something much more important.

- Russia's Catacomb Saints

QUOTE

Let it not be thought, however, that I affirm that it is necessary to prize every peace. For I know that there is a splendid disagreement and the most destructive unanimity. Yet one must love a good peace which has a good purpose: unity with God.

-St. Gregory the Theologian

QUOTE

... To pious Christians the fact that the world has fallen into godlessness is to them obvious, and they are ready to see it as an unfortunate historical inevitability ...

Professor Viktor Trostinkov

QUOTE

If you want to have assurance that you are saved, repent now that you are young and healthy and it is manifest that you left sin while you were still able to sin. But if you persevere in sin into your old age, why then you did not leave sin, but rather sin left you.

St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

QUOTE

Live in peace not only with your friends, but also with your enemies; but only your personal enemies, and not the enemies of God.

St. Theodosius of the Kiev Caves

QUOTE

Judge not according to appearances, but judge righteous judgment.

St. John 7:24

QUOTE

"If Russia is not ressurrected, a new Golgotha threatens the whole world."

Priest Vladimir Evsukoff 1980†

QUOTE

A man who does not express a desire to link himself to the latest of the saints (in time) in all love and humility owing to a certain distrust in himself, will never be linked to the preceding saints and will not be admitted to their succession, even though he thinks he possesses all possible faith and love for God and for all His saints. He will be cast out of their midst, as one who refused to take humbly the place allotted to him by God before all time, and to link himself to that latest saint (in time) as God had disposed.

St. Symeon the New Theologian

QUOTE

SCOBA, to which world orthodoxy gives such great significance, reproaching us for not belonging to it, actually is in no way a canonical organ. The Russian Church Outside of Russia was invited to take part in these conferences; however, our Church refused to send representatives there after clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate were invited. "We never and nowhere will sit at one table with them; by this our spiritual communion with the Universal Church is not broken."

Archpriest George Grabbe 1969

QUOTE

"Let us always thank the Lord that we are in the Holy Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, which throughout the 80 years of its existence has trodden the straight, royal path of God, without ever turning aside and losing its way."

QUOTE

The passions lying hidden in the soul provide the demons with the means of arousing impassioned thoughts in us. Then, fighting the intellect through these thoughts, they force it to give its assent to sin. When it has been overcome, they lead it to sin in the mind; and when this has been done they induce it, captive as it is, to commit the sin in action. Having thus desolated the soul by means of these thoughts, the demons then retreat, taking the thoughts with them, and only the spectre or idol of sin remains in the intellect. Referring to this our Lord says, 'When you see the abominable idol of desolation standing in the holy place (let him who reads understand)... (Matt 24:15). For man's intellect is a holy place and a temple of God in which the demons, having desolated the soul by impassioned thoughts, set up the idol of sin. That these things have already taken place in history no one, I think, who has read Josephus will doubt; though some say that they will also come to pass in the time of the Antichrist.

Philokalia

QUOTE

There are three things that impel us towards what is holy: natural instincts, angelic powers, and probity of intention. Natural instincts impel us, when, for example, we do to others what we would wish them to do to us (cf. Luke 6:31), or when we see someone suffering deprivation or in need and naturally feel compassion. Angelic powers impel us when, being ourselves impelled to something worthwhile, we find we are providentially helped and guided. We are impelled by probity of intention when, discriminating between good and evil, we choose the good.

Philokalia

QUOTE

The outward Gospel of social idealism is a symptom of loss of faith.

Fr. Seraphim Rose

QUOTE

Impurity of intellect consists first in having false knowledge, ...

Philokalia

QUOTE

Isn't Marx really the third of a trio with Darwin and Freud as a practical source in the war against revealed truth?

Fr. Seraphim Rose

Letters, 1972

QUOTE

QUOTE

To: ROCA members from the MP

"You have to understand that you have long been in a false church, which implants in its members' souls, a false spirituality, which in turn takes root and grows stronger and stronger, the longer a man stays in it."

Bishop Athanasius, 2014

QUOTE

Mankind has gone mad, and we see with horror the abyss into which it is being drawn. Let us lay aside every worldly care, and let us fall down in prayer and readiness for the dread Judgment of the Lord. Death will not come with bombs and poisons. Death has already come and take up residence with us and in us, and has made corpses of us, Mammon has overwhelmed this sinful world, which is dominated by Queen Science, Lucifer himself, which with one hand makes medicines and machines for man's foolish happiness and with the other terrorizes him by means of the bomb! Such is the sorry state of knowledge and the agony of the world through and through. Let us lift up our hearts.

-Photios Kontoglou (†1965) letter to Dr. Cavarnos dated 5/10/57

QUOTE

"Psychopaths are a superior subspecies. We transcend humanity. We are Nature's Supermen. We deserve the subservience and availability of everyone around us. Luckily, every year 100-million people are born throughout the world. We have 100-million new choices every year."

-Sam Vaknin, self-realized psychopath

QUOTE

Our Saviour placed the Church in the world in order to save the world, and Satan is always trying to place the world into the Church in order to destroy the Church.

attributed to Desert Fathers

QUOTE

"If you see lying and hypocrisy, expose them in front of all, even if they are clothed inpurple and fine linen."

Metropolitan Anastasy (Gribanovsky) of New York (1906)

HALL OF SHAME

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